beer review

Febrewary: Milk Stout Nitro

~ LobaBlanca

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Brewer: Left Hand Brewing Company
Location: Longmont, Colorado
Type: Sweet Stout
ABV: 6%

As I mentioned back in Darktober while reviewing a beer from a different Colorado-based craft brewery, I love Left Hand Brewing Company, simply because they introduced me to their beautiful milk stout. Well, that and the fact that I’m left-handed. But that’s neither here nor there.

It was no surprise, then, that when I first read about their success in bottling a nitrogen-charged beer, and that said beer was my favorite of their brews that I have tried? Well, I had to have some.

If you’re curious, charging a beer with a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mix rather than just carbon dioxide gives the brew an intense, silky mouth feel. It’s also supposed to accentuate sweeter flavors within the beer (it’s not surprising, then, that Left Hand would choose their milk stout for this experiment). It used to be that you could only get “on nitro” in bars that had the right equipment to pull a proper draft. That or those silly Guinness bottles and cans with the little ping-pong balls and rockets inside. Those never tasted convincing…or good, by the by.

For this beer, Left Hand uses no foreign objects…just a two-word instruction: Pour Hard.

And that’s precisely what I did: Popped the top and upended the bottle into my glass in a perfectly vertical position. The nitrogen charge holds in place rather than fizzing out of the glass, instead pulling downward in that beautiful “cascade effect” made most famous by Guinness. I wish I could have gotten a photo of that, but it happens quite quickly before slowing and reversing upward into a gorgeous frothy frosting of foam atop the beer.

Visual feast aside, sweetness assails my sense of smell as this beer burbles and frolics in its glass. I’ve read that Left Hand recommends chilling this beer before serving. I don’t, simply because I have learned that darker beers offer up so much more complexity when warmer. Therefore, right from the start, I detect scents of chocolate, coffee, cream…something soft and sweet like a mocha latte made from a perfectly dark-roasted blend.

Again, thank the nitrogen for the full-bodied mouth feel and the creamy slip of every sip of this beer along my tongue. Milk Stout Nitro is the epitome of a dessert beer. Thick, luscious, delectable…with one slight misstep. There’s a strange metallic aftertaste. I’d describe it as comparable to licking a nearly dead AA battery after each swallow (but not a 9-volt!). I’ve had many a regular milk stout from this brewer, so I know that this isn’t normal for this beer. It’s something that settles into the other flavors with a little time, but I’m wondering if this is the one down side of Left Hand’s attempt at nitro-charged bottling.

Honestly, though, if this is the only hiccup, I’m okay with it. The resultant beer drinking experience you get from a bottle of Milk Stout Nitro is nothing short of wondrous. Obviously, others have agreed in large enough numbers that Left Hand has introduced nitrogen-charged versions of their Sawtooth All-American Ale and their Wake Up Dead Stout. I can assure you, I am already on the lookout for these two new experiences.

Febrewary: K-9 Winter Ale

~ lobablanca

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Brewer: Flying Dog Brewery
Location: Frederick, Maryland
Type: English Strong Ale
ABV: 7.4%

Hey, denizens. It’s snowing. Again. It’s only supposed to be “conversational” snow, which I suppose it is…if the conversation consists of the phrase, “Damn, why is it sticking to the roads?”

Guess it’s time to seek comfort once more with a four-legged purveyor of liquid winter warmth. This time, it’s the K-9 Winter Ale from my much-adored friends at Flying Dog. As is the case with many of Flying Dog’s brews, this one comes with a happy little story:

Your legs are strained and your ass is clenched as you descend down the face. You don’t even notice the blood dripping from your nose as the powder is crushed beneath you. It’s freezing cold, but you don’t feel a goddamn thing.

Oh, Flying Dog. You spin such heart-warming tales. Fo shizzle.

Apparently, this particular brew shifts its flavor profile each year, based on the whims of its brewers. I’ve never tried it before, so I can’t make the expected comparisons with previous beers. I can, however, say that this is probably the first time that I have been decidedly “meh” toward a Flying Dog beer.

It’s a beautiful beer, to be sure

Febrewary: Wailua Wheat

~ lobablanca

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Brewer: Kona Brewing Company
Location: Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Type: American Pale Wheat Ale
ABV: 5.4%

Today was a reminiscing day, denizens. It’s been like a heat wave the past two days, with temperatures reaching into the mid-50s both days. After nearly two solid weeks of temperatures barely getting out of the single digits and sometimes going into negative numbers? Plus, snow sometimes every other day? I felt like breaking out the sunscreen and the flip-flops.

Instead, I put on the hoodie I bought in Kauai last April and enjoyed the fact that I only had to put on my winter coat to go outside, and not the two coats, two scarves, two sets of gloves, and knit cap that I’ve been wearing every other time I dared to venture outdoors. And this evening, when I finished my workout and came upstairs for dinner? I brought with me this little beauty from my beer fridge.

I wrote about Kona Brewing Company once before, in my review of their KoKo Brown for Darktober. As I said, though, this month wouldn’t be all about dark beers (mostly, but not completely). In my Darktober review, I mentioned a few of Kona’s other beers that I liked. I hadn’t had this particular brew at the time. If I had, I definitely would have raved about it as well.

With a clean layer of foam, white as the caps of cresting waves, and a color as golden as the glow of sunlight starting yet another glorious Maui morning, this beer is nothing like what I expected to enjoy. But dark beers aren’t really par for the course in Hawaii (although they can be found…and they are delicious)…so when in Maui, go with what the locals like, eh?

Right off the bat, I guess I should confess that all my consternation about “fruity beers” is apparently a lie. I only dislike some fruit-flavored beers. Others, though? Others utterly astound me. So it was with Wailua Wheat, which carries with every sniff and every sip a beautiful passion fruit sweetness that is perfectly balanced and never overwhelms. This ale does have a bit of a thin mouth feel in contrast with the bold passion fruit bouquet, but this might also be my mouth balking at the foreign feel of a light beer.

Mingling wonderfully with the beer’s natural wheatiness, the passion fruit is what ultimately makes this beer both delicious and dangerous. You’ve no idea you’ve just downed an entire pint until you pick up your glass for another happy swig, only to discover that you’re staring at the coaster through the distorted emptiness of the glass bottom. It’s a good thing that this isn’t a high-ABV beer, because one could easily make it through an entire six-pack of this ale in one sitting and not even realize it.

Even a dark beer lover like me understands that every beer fan should have a few light go-tos. I would tag Wailua Wheat as a perfect summer afternoon sipper…even if it is the middle of winter and snow and more single-digit temperatures are in the 24-hour forecast. Actually, that’s all the more reason to drink this beer. Forget about the blah. Embrace the aloha.

Febrewary: Sweet Baby Jesus Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter

~ lobablanca

Hey there, denizens. Remember when I did Darktober? Thirty-one days of dark beer reviews. Pretty flippin’ sweet.

Seems I’ve gone an amassed a bunch of new beers (mostly dark, of course, since that’s how I roll) that I would like to try. Plus, I have a couple of beers that I’ve been aging for a few years and are now at a point where I think it’s time to crack them open, too.

Therefore, I deem this to be the beginning of….Febrewary. Oh yeah. It’s not going to be a daily thing this time, simply because I’d rather keep the workouts to my whole body rather than just my liver. So it will be a kind of semi-regular theme throughout this month. I’m posting this today because…well, I’ve had a frustrating evening thanks to some computer kerfuffling that left me wanting a beer to tame the tantrum.

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So let’s kick this off with a brand new purchase I just made this morning during a trip to Total Wine: Sweet Baby Jesus! Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter. As with Darktober, here are the stats on this one:
Brewer: DuClaw Brewing Company
Location: Abingdon, Maryland
Type: American Porter
ABV: 6.5%

Obviously, the reason I picked up the beer in the first place is the name. Seriously, how do you resist picking up a beer named Sweet Baby Jesus!? Plus, it’s a local brewery, and I do try to support them whenever I can. Then I was pretty much sold upon reading that it was a chocolate peanut butter porter. I’ve never had such a thing. I honestly never even considered that such a beer could exist. Besides, just one bottle couldn’t hurt.

I poured this at room temperature, which is how I’ve taken to drinking my dark beers. These types of beers have so many complex layers that you completely miss if you drink them cold. So many smells and flavors that awaken with warmth.

At first, this beer had a bit of a…hinky bouquet. It smelled surprisingly hoppy and not at all chocolatey or peanut buttery. I let it sit for a few minutes, went back and smelled again and was greeted by a glorious dark chocolate nose, with a slight smoky undertone.

Took a sip and I could definitely taste the chocolate, although the taste was nowhere near as delightful as the smell. However, I wouldn’t describe the rest of the flavors as even remotely close to peanut butter. To me, it tasted more like…burnt mash doused in chocolate sauce. It was not the type of flavor that would cause me to proclaim “Sweet Baby Jesus” in a positive way.

The beer left a cloying aftertaste. It’s not even that it tasted overly sweet while drinking it, but something stayed behind with each sip

Darktober 29: Gonzo Imperial Porter

~ lobablanca

Brewer: Flying Dog Brewery
Location: Frederick, Maryland
Type: Baltic Porter
ABV: 9.2%

Welcome to the Final Three, denizens. These are purely indulgent entries for me. I’ve had these final three beers many times in many forms. As many forms as I can possibly have them. They are three of my favorite beers from what might be my current favorite brewery: hometown heroes Flying Dog Brewery.

Flying Dog actually started out in Aspen, Colorado, in 1990. They relocated to Frederick, Maryland, in 1994, and it’s been all upward and onward since for us on the East Coast.

I’m not going to babble on about the color or the head or the lacing or the nose or anything along those lines. You can’t even see the color on this entry, thanks to my totally groovy cobalt GEEK glass…although look at that head!! So luscious! You’ve been here with me for almost a month now. You know what descriptors I assign to good versions of these beers…and you know what the few meh or worse entries received in their descriptions as well.

[Loba Tangent: Those of you who actually have stuck around for this entire Darktober? Thank you so much…your indulgence of my random weirdness never ceases to surpise and delight me.]

Also, the selection of these final beers is based on my subjective responses to them. My palate is bizarrely my own…that being said, today’s beer is bar-none my current favorite. Of any beer I’ve ever had.

Is it the best? Probably not. But, oh, the overload it dumps into my pleasure cortex. It’s the liquid version of that crazy game that Commander Riker nearly broke the Enterprise crew with…thank goodness for Wesley!

o_O

I love Gonzo Imperial Porter. Do I think it’s an “everyday beer”? No. I wouldn’t want to drink something this decadent, this complex, this gorgeous every day. That would make it pedestrian, and that is a word this beer most assuredly does not deserve. This is a “treat beer,” in whatever form you can find it. Gonzo Imperial Porter, fresh from the tap, is like ambrosia to me. A must. Gonzo Imperial Porter, fresh from the bottle, leaves me feeling warm and happy. Gonzo Imperial Porter bottle-aged? Sweet merciful Hunter S. Thompson, this beer bottle ages like Helen Mirren: playful, distinguished, and breathtaking. Tonight’s bottle has been aging for about 14 months. Everything about it is…more. Perfectly, deliciously more.

I will say this: Aging this beer definitely turns it into a sipping beer. The intensity of the flavors make it a crime to imbibe it with any semblance of haste. This beer requires the respect of time.

There is another form of Gonzo Imperial Porter that I am sad to say I have yet to experience: Barrel-Aged Gonzo. Flying Dog makes this one in very limited batches, and the moment it hits shelves around here? It’s gone. People love this version of Gonzo. I’m willing to bet I would love it, too. I just need to get the chance…so if any of you ever see a bottle on a shelf somewhere, shoot me a text, okay? 🙂

Darktober 26: Coney Island Freaktoberfest

~ lobablanca

Brewer: Shmaltz Brewing Company
Location: Saratoga Springs, New York
Type: American Amber/Red Lager
ABV: 6.66%

I honestly don’t know why I chose this one, denizens. You know, beyond the kitsch factor, which, let’s face it, is just pouring from this beer like pigs’ blood on prom night. Grotesque label art, a diabolical ABV level, and a blood red coloring all make this one helluva freaky beer.

Of course, rather than looking like blood, this beer looks more like a glass of Kool-Aid. Maybe Hi-C. I’m not sure. I do know that it’s not an appealing beer color at all. It looks like something went horribly wrong in the brewing process. What might have made it worse was the massive pink frothy head. It’s just not a visually appealing beer. Leaves a massive amount of lacing along the inside of the glass, though. Probably the most lacing of any beer I’ve had this month. Here, I took a photo, just for you:

That’s some serious lacing.

The nose on this one reveals the heavy hoppiness that I feared, mixed with a high-volume syrupiness. Taste is quite similar. It’s not nearly as hoppy as I was expecting from the smell, but it’s hoppy enough. And sweet. Too sweet. And bitter. But not bitter enough to disguise the sweet. It’s seriously like someone knocked a jug of bargain-bin fruit punch into the vat that was brewing this beer.

For the kitsch alone, I guess it was worth trying this beer. From a serious beer drinking standpoint, though? No way. Don’t waste your money, denizens. Or if you must, just to say you’ve tried it, definitely stick with a single bottle. Unless you’ve got three other souls you’re itching to torment this Freaktober…

Darktober 25: Stovepipe Porter

~ LobaBlanca

Brewer: Otter Creek Brewing Company
Location: Middlebury, Vermont
Type: American Porter
ABV: 4.4%

Dropping down from Canada, we land at the shores of Vermont’s Otter Creek for some of their Stovepipe Porter.

Ruby-tinted blackness with a smudge of carbonation, this porter delivers familiar albeit slightly floral smells but comes in slightly drier, slightly more bitter than many of the other porters to have made a Darktober appearance. Although not nearly as bitter as Boxcar’s Pumpkin Porter, Stovepipe definitely does not tickle the sweet senses of your palate in any way.

I also detected a stronger hops presence in this porter, which might have accentuated the dry, bitter flavor profile. While deducting points from my personal enjoyment scale, I think that this porter strikes a nice balance between the malts and hops that could appeal to the more hoppy minded beer drinker. Of course, I could be completely off on this assumption. It would not be the first time.

Not a terrible beer, but definitely not a stand-out. If I’ve shown anything this month, there is no dearth of exceptional choices for dark beer drinkers. Why, then, would I choose a middle-of-the-road beer if I could choose a better option?